Ah ha! As I postulated in an earlier entry, RiverMuse has just released a commercial, chargeable, version of the fault management product.
I guess it was possible they might have gone for revenues purely from services relating to deployment of their free open source ‘core’ platform. But it was pretty unlikely. They’ve taken a common approach by providing a free core and an ‘enterprise’ version (ES – Enterprise Subscription, as they call it).
What do you get for your money, compared to the freebie version?
At the moment the data sheet seems to suggest it’s:
- Release from GPL license constraints (you’d normally be obliged to feedback all your own code changes to RiverMuse )
- Indemnity (a common requirement from customers deploying open source, so IBM/SCO/Microsoft don’t come a sue them for using patented technology, or something).
- A support contract.
Hmmm… But no value-add functionality? No advanced scaling options added? No enterprise management, security or admin tools?
Ok, maybe the core version has everything an enterprise would need in terms of scalability and platform options.
I still predict more chargeable, functional, product offerings from RiverMuse in the future…